Research

Current third-party funded research projects

Residential mobility and the realignment of electoral politics in established democracies (RESPOL), 2025–2030. Starting Grant funded by the European Research Council (ERC).

Elite Affective Polarization in Israel and Germany, 2025–2027. Together with Lior Sheffer, Tel Aviv University. Funded by a Nexus grant from the German Israeli Foundation.

Polarization through and in referendums: mapping polarization within and beyond the party system, 2022–2028. Emmy Noether grant funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Legacies of democratic transition. Explaining the success of the populist radical right in eastern Germany, 2023–2026. Funded by Fritz Thyssen Foundation.

Working Papers

“When and why do parties support direct democracy?” R&R

“What’s in a Name? Name Recognition, place-based identities, and candidate success” (with Tilko Swalve, University of Leiden)

“Make Up Your Mind! Opinion formation and polarization in EU referendums” (with Felix Grünewald and Nelly Buntfuß, Chemnitz University of Technology)

“Love, loathing, or both? Disentangling Affective Polarization and Group Affects” (with Felix Grünewald and Nelly Buntfuß, Chemnitz University of Technology)

“Ideological and affective polarization in multiparty systems” (with Felix Grünewald and Nelly Buntfuß, Chemnitz University of Technology) – available on SocArVix

“Still competing for loyalists? Voter Entrenchment and Opportunities for Mainstream Parties in the German Far Right” (with Thomas Tichelbäcker, Chemnitz University of Technology and Princeton University)

Work in progress

“A Vicious Circle of Population Decline and Far-Right Support. Mass Emigration and the rise of the radical right in Eastern Germany” (with Mark A. Kayser, Hertie School, Dani Sandu, Université de Fribourg, and Thomas Tichelbäcker, Chemnitz University of Technology and Princeton University)

“Effects of the 2023 Electoral Reform on Party Strategy in the 2025 German National Election” (with Lukas Rudolph, University of Konstanz, and Jochen Rehmert, University of Basel)

Media and Blogs

I also occasionally write for media outlets and blogs about my research and data analyses I do in my ‘free time.’ See below for a selection of posts.

• “Sie dürfen wählen, sie dürfen nicht, sie dürfen wählen…”, Verfassungsblog, 19 November 2022
• “Minderheitsregierungen sind besser als ihr Ruf”, Tagesspiegel Causa, 24 January 2020
• “Fakescience - eine Warnung vor dem Hashtag”, Tagesspiegel Causa, 21 July 2018
• “Am Scheideweg - Sind die Grünen nur eine Partei des Westens?” (with Julian Zuber, Tagesspiegel Causa, 8 November 2016
• “Zu jung zum Wählen?” (with Thorsten Faas, Sigrid Roßteutscher and Armin Schäfer), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 September 2017
• “A far-right party just won seats in three German state parliaments. Here’s why.”, The Monkey Cage, 22 March 2016
• “Voters seem to respond to the ‘reported’ rather than the ‘real’ economy”, LSE Democratic Audit UK, 9 September 2015
• “Direct democracy is ill-fitted to engaging the politically disengaged, but popular with more active citizens”, LSE Democratic Audit UK, 30 July 2015
• “Simultaneity of Local Elections and Turnout in the 2014 European Election in Germany”, Making Electoral Democracy Work Blog